CANNES, May 21 —  The premiere of Chinese movie Summer of Changsha will go ahead at the Cannes film festival, organisers said Tuesday, despite the team behind it saying they would not be there.

Zu Feng’s tale of betrayal—which is due to screen tomorrow—is one of two Chinese noir movies showing at the world’s biggest film festival.

But yesterday speculation was mounting that it had become the third Chinese film to be pulled from a major festival this year after falling foul of the censors.

In a message posted on the film’s official account on Chinese social media platform Weibo, the producers said: "Due to technical reasons, the producer and all leading creators of the film Summer of Changsha will not participate in the 72^nd Cannes Film Festival and the related official activities.”

But the festival said the premiere would go ahead without the director and cast.

AFP attempted without success to contact the production team.

China recently introduced regulations that require filmmakers to be handed a "dragon seal” of approval before films may be screened at festivals abroad.

Another Chinese crime thriller, Diao Yinan’s stylish "The Wild Goose Lake”, was shown without incident last week at Cannes, where it is competing for the Palme d’Or top prize against Quentin Tarantino’s "Once Upon a Time In Hollywood”, which premieres Tuesday.

Fame has been no protection from the new rules which govern China’s strictly-controlled movie industry. 

One of the country’s most famous directors, Zhang Yimou, the maker of Raise the Red Lantern, was forced to withdraw One Second from the Berlinale in February on the eve of the festival.

Another Chinese movie, Better Days, that had been scheduled to show in the German capital, failed to get the go-ahead in time from Beijing. — AFP